Water Wars
California has several different industries that need lots of water. The farms call for more available water and when they get it the rivers don't have enough water for salmon to breed. I heard that a lot of the big farms get a quota of water for their crops. The problem with the quota system is that if the farmer does not use all the water in his quota then his next year's quota is reduced. The suggestion was to make the quota system more flexible so that the farmers could cut back on water use without being forced to have a smaller quota the next year. The unused farm water would be redirected to the breeding streams for salmon.
This is a simplified version of the water usage but it shows the politics as well as the lack of incentives.
